Monday, May 27, 2013

Today, we honor the countless heroes who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to answer our country's call to arms. Please take a few minutes to watch our Memorial Day Tribute featuring Norman St. Germain – Seaman First Class, USS Gambier Bay who spent 47 hours in the shark-infested waters of Leyte Gulf after his ship was sunk during WWII.

There is something incredibly moving about the uniform beauty and reverent silence of our national cemeteries. The endless flow of granite and grass where etched in stone the names of heroes live on forever. Adorned with flag and flowers, the sacred and hallowed ground inters America’s courageous sons and daughters of liberty, those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the cause and defense of freedom. No greater act of love or noble act of selflessness is represented in these memorials of tribute to patriots past.

What began shortly after the Civil War as Decoration Day — a day to adorn the graves and honor the dead of the Confederate and Union Armies — became more inclusive in the 20th century as “Memorial Day” to honor the fallen from every conflict.

America owes a debt of gratitude to all those who have answered her call to arms, those who have donned the uniform and willingly given everything in her defense. May this Memorial Day remind us all, that freedom isn’t free and that its blessings, enjoyed by all, were paid for with the blood of heroes.

- Rick Stewart, Executive Producer of NRA Life of Duty

Several years ago, I took my family to see the great Iwo Jima memorial, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. My young daughters were awed by the sheer size of that awesome monument. "Turn around," I said, and indicated the distant headstones of Arlington; row after row after row of neat white headstones fading into the distance, like waves of soldiers on an ancient battlefield."